Google Analytics Goals

Google Analytics Goals are one of the best ways to measure the success of your website.

Goals are called goals for a reason. They help you measure the goals of your site. All websites have a goal, many have several. If you do not know the purpose, or goal, of your website, then Google Analytics ends up being a simple site counter. Google Analytics can be so much more.

What are you measuring?
The first step in setting up goals is deciding what you want to measure on your site. Below are a few examples of common site goals:

• Purchase
• Contact Form
• Pricing Check
• Check Availability

Find a Measurement Point
Now that you know what you want to measure, it becomes much easier to establish a measurement point on your website. An ecommerce site, for example, would use the “order confirmation” page at the measurement point. A contact form would use the “thank you” page.

Create Goal in Google Analytics
To create a goal, choose Analytics Settings after logging in Google Analytics.

After choosing Add goal (as seen above) on the right, you will be taken to the Enter Goal Information page.

On the Enter Goal Information page, you will enter your Goal Name and Position. As a beginner with Goals, using “Goal 1” is the best starting point. Multiple goal levels can be used for measuring the funnel and purchase path, but that is a conversation for another day. For now, choose any available “Set” and “Goal 1”

On this page you will have 3 Goal Types to choose from: URL Destination, Time on Site, and Pages/Visit. As you choose each of these, you will be given different Goal Details as it pertains to that Type.

URL Destination is the most common option and is used when visitors get a specific page to visit. Frankly, I’ve never even used the other two. I can see valuable use in them, but I’ve never had an instance where it was applicable. For the purpose of this lesson, I will stick with URL Destination.

Within the URL Destination setting, three Match Type options are available.

1. Head Match: If your goal page requires variables in the URL that can change, such as /shopping-cart/?page=2&item=1919, then using Head Match will match the starting string of the URL (/shopping-cart/).
2. Exact Match: If your goal page is a static URL that does not change, like thank-you.htm, for example, then use Exact Match.
3. Regular Expression Match: If the start of the URL could change, then you should use Regular Expression Match; this is useful with URL cases such as /category1/checkout.htm and /category2/checkout.htm.

Measuring
That is the basics when it comes to configuring Goals in Google Analytics. Now that the data is there, it’s time to start reviewing the reporting.

One of the great features of using Goals is that the data is interwoven within various reports. For example, the keyword report (as seen below) will show which keywords led to goal interactions.

I have just reached the surface when it comes to goals and funnels. There is so much more you can look at and analyze. However, this should get you started with the basics.

As always, if you have any questions … just ask.